The Institute for Research on Public Policy has released a report showing that skilled immigrants and refugees do better economically than any other immigrant cohort entering the country. However, in high unemployment periods, immigrants are first to lose their jobs.

Report authors Michael Abbott and Charles Beach say officials should consider reducing total immigrant admission levels during recessions, when Canada is hit with high unemployment periods for this reason.

The study was released days after the government said it plans to accept as many as 10,000 more skilled workers into the country in 2012, in part to help deal with a massive backlog in applications. Researchers at IRPP, a non-partisan think-tank based in Montreal, studied the 10-year annual incomes of three cohorts of four immigrants groups who arrived as permanent residents in 1982, 1988 and 1994.

Immigrants entering Canada are classified under the categories of:

refugee

family-class (part of family re-unification) and

economic — meaning skilled workers.

“Skill-assessed immigrants, people who go through the point system, consistently do better in terms of higher earning levels than other arriving immigrants . . . 35 per cent better for men and 56 per cent for women,” said Beach.

“Refugees had the highest earning growth rates again for both men and women across all entry groups . . . 29 per cent for men and 35 per cent for women,” he adds. “Refugees may start low and have low earnings initially, but their earnings grow faster than other groups,” said Beach. Women in the family class had the lowest earnings. Recessions, the report found, hit the wages of all groups of immigrants.